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{
    "id": 904836,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/904836/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 368,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr.",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13156,
        "legal_name": "Mutula Kilonzo Jnr",
        "slug": "mutula-kilonzo-jnr"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. I rise to second this important Bill by Sen. Kasanga; The Mental Health (Amendment) Bill (Senate Bills No. 32 of 2018). I also want to congratulate her for proposing this Bill. I had never taken a keen interest in mental health until Sen. Kasanga brought it up. Just like any family, one of my cousins has mental health issues. My family members in Mbooni lock him in a room for he walks around when left free. On reading some of these matters, it has come to my attention that mental health is a problem. Somebody once said that we are all mad; the only thing that differs is the degree of madness. Statistics show that up to 20 to 25 per cent of people seeking medical care have mental health issues. I came across an article that I will refer to extensively. The KNCHR did an audit called Human Rights Audit of the Mental Health System in Kenya. They did that audit in 2011 and it is titled ‗Silenced Minds; the Systematic Neglect of Mental Health System in Kenya. The document is nerve-racking. It is shocking. According to one of the chapters in that Report, Cable News Network (CNN) did a documentary on Mathari Hospital in 2011 entitled ‗Locked up and forgotten‘. That documentary portrayed the decaying mental health system in Kenya. The CNN crew found a deceased patient who had died the night before, but was lying in an isolated cell in a male ward. The tragedy is that another patient lay next to the dead body for a whole day and night. This happened in 2011, and Sen. Kasanga has made a proposal in 2019; eight years later. The issues that I have seen in this Report are the same; lack of funding and discrimination. I have seen a report that says that people who suffer mental disorder are forced into labour and sexually violated. In this report, they have said that a girl in Kathonzweni was sexually violated. Fortunately, those people did not throw her in a pit latrine. This happened in Makueni. We have a crisis. We only have one hospital and lock up people who are alleged to be mentally unwell. This report has reminded me of Article 28 of the Constitution, which talks of the right to live with human dignity. What Sen. Kasanga has done – maybe unbeknown to her - is to give persons who have mental instability or illness their right to dignity. They have to dress well, kept in a nice place, fed and not to be ostracized. They should not be forced into sex, forced to work and or thrown into a dustbin. Look at the case in Nakuru where about 14 or 16 street boys, who were not even mental patients, were picked up from the streets. They were put in a vehicle and dropped in a forest at night to go and die, and for God to take care of them. It is not unknown to say that a person who is suffering from mental illness has been bewitched. People say they are mad or were bewitched. In Ukambani, you would The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}